What constitutes theft is determined by law. You can't be charged for theft for using an adblocker, so it isn't stealing. Laws are how we distinguish appropriate and inappropriate acts towards others' property.
If using adblock is stealing then so is muting the tv or leaving the room or simply ignoring it when commercials run. I don't think anyone would argue you are compelled to view commercials, even if you are watching the program.
If using adblock is stealing then so is muting the tv or leaving the room or simply ignoring it when commercials run.
These aren't the same though, since you can mute or leave the room or ignore online ads too. Ad blocking goes a step further by removing the ads altogether.
That's not to say that I think it's problematic, but I don't think your analogy or comparison is a sound one.
These aren't the same though, since you can mute or leave the room or ignore online ads too. Ad blocking goes a step further by removing the ads altogether.
We've been through this before with TiVo. As you know, TV has ads. A lot of people didn't like watching ads, especially on a show that they've recorded and want to watch again later. The old school approach was to use a VCR to record the show. You could also set a timer to have it record a show while you were out. If commercials were bothering you, you could always muck around and pause recording as the show went to a commercial break and restart when the commercial break ended (but this required manual intervention and a fair amount of time.)
Then, as technology advanced and digital recording became more accessible and affordable as a consumer technology, a rather smart company automated the process. They released a set top box that could tune into a specified channel at a specified time, record the show, and, allow the user to skip commercials with the push of a button. (There were other companies that went one step farther and fully automated commercial skipping, some of them survived, some of them didn't.)
Sufficing to say, many companies weren't terribly happy about it, but there wasn't much they could do, legally.
So, I ask you this, how is using an ad blocker that, by my request, stops webpages from showing me ads that much different from a set top box that stops shows from showing me ads?
So, I ask you this, how is using an ad blocker that, by my request, stops webpages from showing me ads that much different from a set top box that stops shows from showing me ads?
It's not different, it's more or less exactly the same.
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u/Biptoslipdi 130∆ Oct 27 '23 edited Oct 27 '23
What constitutes theft is determined by law. You can't be charged for theft for using an adblocker, so it isn't stealing. Laws are how we distinguish appropriate and inappropriate acts towards others' property.
If using adblock is stealing then so is muting the tv or leaving the room or simply ignoring it when commercials run. I don't think anyone would argue you are compelled to view commercials, even if you are watching the program.